30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 25

It's rare for me to hate a horror film. I can sit through some of the most awful movies. Usually there is a redeeming factor somewhere in the film. Even rarer, is the film that I hated, but over time has grown on me, or I've taken a different perspective after a number of years. Most of the time, I can look at a film that I didn't care for and years later decide it wasn't as bad as I remembered it. I can only think of one film that fits the description of hate/like.

A horror film that you used to hate, but now like.

Wolfen (1981)

During the summer of 1981, I was four years old. I was a few months shy of my fifth birthday, which would be in October. My parents and I spent a week at a cottage rental. I learned how to fish there and can remember watching a tiny television in the early evening. For some odd reason, the only show I can remember watching was The Facts Of Life. I'm not sure why that sticks out, but memory is a weird thing when you think back thirty years.

One commercial that I remember seeing was for Wolfen. It looked scary, but I was into horror films, even at that young age. The commercial made quite an impression on me. I watched more early eighties sitcoms and then I went to sleep.

In the middle of the night, I woke up screaming. The image of a Wolfen smashing through a plate glass window scared the crap out of me. It might have been enhanced by my becoming sick on the trip, but that image scarred me for most of my childhood.

Years later, when I actually sat down and watched the film, I enjoyed it. It was a well crafted thriller with a few tricks up its sleeve. The movie Predator would be nothing without the camera techniques used here.